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Creativity 50 2010: Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze has already cemented a place for himself among the directorial elite, given his success across the film gamut-from features to spots and music videos. It's no surprise, then, that audience anticipation was at an all-time high when word was out that Jonze was going to tackle the daunting project of taking Maurice Sendak's classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are to the big screen. The film finally launched last year and whether you were in the camp that loved it or not, one thing that's hard to argue is the film's innovative marketing push. Eschewing the big studio marketing efforts, the director took a homegrown approach to creating buzz for the film. Jonze started off with a simple blog, We Love You So, to celebrate the creative community and influences that were behind the making of the film. He also rallied a slew of friends and collaborators from his own creative circle to help with the push. Among those included fellow director and artist/designer Geoff McFetridge, who created all Wild Things titles and stylebook, Girl Skateboards and Lakai Shoes released limited edition products based on the film, as did indie boutique Opening Ceremony, which also put out its own line of film-inspired goods, including some extremely Wild Things-inspired fur clothing--all of which succeeded in creating the sort of under the radar buzz that would be typically hard to achieve for something many would categorize as a children's film. Outside of his feature, Jonze continued to create a stir with his short film work, including the strange Kanye West vehicle, We Were Once a Fairytale, and the Absolut-sponsored robot love story. I'm Here. With recent co-promotions with the likes of Opening Ceremony, the TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York project, debuted at Sundance and appears to be following the marketing footsteps of Wild Things as it prepares for its online launch this month.